As an educated human, he should understand that when you provide written instructions it is implicitly a "do what I say" and not "do what [you infer] I mean".
It is obviously unfair and unprofessional to penalize the student for the professor's error.
I think It’s a question of scope not of the logical operator. One way to interpret the question is:
1. You choose X or Y or Z
2. You provide a scheduler that does the thing you chose
Another is:
1. You provide a scheduler where I choose X or Y or Z and the scheduler does the thing I chose.
The question is whether the disjunction applies to the input configuration of the scheduler or the output of the assignment. That is, whether the output of the assignment has type (X_scheduler | Y_scheduler | Z_scheduler) or type (X | Y | Z) -> scheduler.
I agree with you, but not as the assignment is worded:
> “implement a job scheduler, using FIFO, LIFO or round-robin job scheduling”
To me, "using" modifies "implement"; that is, the teacher is telling me to implement something, and then telling me what to use. (That is, "using" does not modify "job scheduler".) If the teacher wanted the second interpretation, they should have said:
"Implement a job scheduler that can use FIFO, LIFO, or round-robin scheduling."
In this case, "that can use" is clearly referring to the job scheduler, not to me. To be fair, though, I think some students might still (reasonably!) believe this means they only have to implement one algorithm. I would probably use this second wording, but also change the "or" to "and". Even better, though more wordy:
"Implement a job scheduler where the user can select between FIFO, LIFO, and round-robin scheduling."
Let's also remember that boolean logic and English usage are not the same thing. I don't think my two suggested wordings would be considered "over-specifying" in the same way that OP is talking about. They're just a better use of language.
The teacher here should just have re-read the problem instructions, shown understanding and empathy toward the student, and either a) just changed the grade right then and there, or b) offered to let the student complete the rest of the assignment and turn it in again. And then made the wording of the problem more clear for the next batch of students.
